My Life in Four Cameras: Kenny
by Starcrossd
Summary: Kenny returns to Sacred Heart. Sadly, he's not looking for a job... (For all you Claymates.)
1. Don't Look Down

(A/N: Before I begin, let me state that I wanted Kenny back because I'm a total Claymate. Seriously. I'm crazy about Clay Aiken. So, here goes. It has little or nothing to do with the actual characters from Scrubs, I just wanted an excuse to put a Clay Aiken related fanfiction on this site. Enjoy. Reviews are muchly loved, yessah.)

-

"I'm really sorry."

The man's words rang through his head like a chant as Kenny practically ran out of the hospital building and into the parking lot, fumbling with his pockets to find his keys.

"I bet you are," he muttered, undoing his smock and resisting the urge to throw it on the ground. Losing your job was no excuse to litter. "I bet you're reeeal sorry. Sure you'll be feelin' awful sorry tonight with your pretty wife up in your nice house and all, while I go home to an apartment that I now can't pay the rent for."

He finally found his keys and stepped out to find his car. It didn't take long to spot the beat up black Honda which was parked beside a dumpster, the last parking spot left when he'd gotten there that morning. Kenny hurried over to his car and opened the door, jumping in and putting the keys into the ignition.

Instead of turning the car on, the man reached over and pulled back the lever on the bottom of the seat so that it pushed back to lie vertical. He stretched and sighed, looking back through the rear window. He groaned.

There was macaroni on the back window.

Kenny grunted and sat back up in the seat, practically growling. "This just isn't my day," he said to himself as he climbed back out of the car, went around, and used his smock to wipe the macaroni off. He knew this macaroni; had made it himself the day before. What it was doing on his car, he had no idea.

After wiping the macaroni away, Kenny tossed the smock into the dumpster and got back into his car. He cranked it up and turned on the radio, letting Toby Keith blare through the already busted speakers.

Still, he wasn't listening to the music. He was thinking, contemplating. How was he going to pay the rent now? How was he going to buy food for his kitten, Chocolate? He'd probably have to give her away. But what if no one took her? He couldn't just leave her out in the street. How would he buy food for himself?

Before, he'd been content to eat what was left over at the end of the night at the cafeteria; one big meal a day, and some to take home for a small breakfast. It was fine by him, so long as he could save a buck to put towards his schooling.

Actually, the job at the cafeteria had been perfect for him, because he wanted to go to college to study culinary arts, and cooking huge batches of rolls and gravy was as much experience as he could get, at the present, in preparing meals for the masses. His dream was to be a chef in his own restaurant. He'd give it a fancy name, like Chez Lumier. Then again, he wasn't French, so he'd also consider something more simple.

After about fifteen minutes of auto-pilot driving through the ghetto, Kenny pulled in behind the building in which he was renting an apartment. He climbed out of his car and into the building, up three flights of rickety stairs, and into his room.

As soon as he opened the door, there came a loud, "MREOW!" and Chocolate the kitten latched herself onto his shin. Kenny looked down, smiled weakly, and picked her up.

"Hey, Cho." He nudged the door shut with his foot and went over to sit down on his bed, which was the only thing in the room besides a sink, balcony door, dresser, and a mirror that was at least twenty years old. (Picture Peter Parker's apartment in Spider-Man 2.)

Chocolate purred in Kenny's lap as they both glanced around the dreary apartment. A few boxes were scattered on the floor; things Kenny had forgotten to unpack when he'd moved in the month before. Some had dirty clothes lying on them, or empty soda bottles that needed to be thrown away. All in all, it wasn't a place you wanted to show off to your friends.

Not that he had any around. Since he'd moved to town from the next state over, Kenny had been too busy looking for a job, and then working at one, to make any new friends in the area. He talked to Mike and Judy at work, but now that was kaput. He'd have to find a new job, and fast, before-

"KENNARD!"

Kenny yelped and Chocolate ran under the bed. The door shook violently as it was pummeled by the landlord out in the hallway.

"Kennard Wallace, OPEN THIS DOOR!" screeched fixty-six year old Roy Alpine. "I know you're in there!" Again, he pummeled the door. "OPEN UP!"

Biting his lip, Kenny stood and opened the door. "S-sir?"

Roy, though a clean nine inches shorter than Kenny, found a way to glare at the young man and make him feel about three inches tall. "Don't 's-sir' me," he spat, stepping closer to Kenny and speaking directly into his face. "Where's my rent money? You're three days late!"

Kenny gulped and nodded shakily. He said, "I-I know, sir, but, uhm..."

'I'd better not tell him I got laid off', he thought.

"My pay check ought to be in at the-the end of the week. I'll have your money by then, Mr. A. Honest engine." Kenny placed a hand over his heart in a sort of salute, offering the man a weak, rather pitiful grin.

Roy glared at him for several nervous moments before he finally gave a nod and a grunt. "Alright," he said gruffly. "Just make sure you get it to me ASAP. You've got five days, and you're outta here."

With that, he turned and went down the stairs to his own room, which was on the bottom floor of the building.

Kenny watched him as he left, then frowned and shut the door, walking through his room and out to the balcony. He leaned against the railing, ignoring its usual creaks of protest as he looked out over the city lights.

"Chocolate," he said softly, addressing the kitten which had joined him on the tiny three-by-five foot balcony, "We're in a pickle."

The kitten looked up at him cluelessly. "Mrew?" she inquired, flicking her tail and starting to knead his right shoe.

He turned so that she could dig her claws into his shoes more, not minding the damage since she was so cute when she did that sort of thing. "Yeah," he said softly, looking back and upwards at the sky. The stars were impossible to see; another thing he missed from his hometown. "I got fired today. Budget cuts. I thought I was doing so well, too... Everyone seemed to like me. I guess I just should've worked harder." He sighed softly. "I wonder if McDonald's is hiring," he murmured.

Chocolate glanced up at her owner and scampered back into the apartment, calling back to him, "Meow!" as if to say, "Come inside! I want to be smothered with attention!"

Kenny laughed. "Alright, alright. I'm comin'. Just a sec." He leaned back for one last attempt to see stars.

The railing he was leaning on gave a loud groan of protest. Kenny tilted his head back and looked at the sides of the wall to which the railing was attached. Was that rust?

"Oh no."

With a metallic screech, the railings broke out from the wall. Kenny jerked forward to move away, but it was too late. He lost his balance, grabbed at the air, but found himself falling...

For one split second Kenny was almost vertical, upside down. He saw the pavement, he saw the sidewalk, and he saw the shiney top of the car that he was about to land on.

-

End Chapter One

(A/N: Thanks to Emma for the name "Kennard Wallace", which came to her in a dream. oO)


	2. Newfound Entrapment

(A/N: Here comes the second chapter. In the classic Kaci style, I'm diving right into the angst.

Thanks to my lovely mother for all the medical details. She's a registered nurse. Most of the medical information used here is pretty accurate. I might've tweaked it a bit, but this story isn't about accuracy; it's about Kenny being pathetic. :D

Without further ado...)

-

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-WOW-WOW-WOW-WOW-JOOWEE-JOOWEE-JOOWEE-JOOWEE-MURR-MURR-MURR-MURR...!

Roy sighed in irritating at hearing that his car alarm was going off. What was it this time? Hoodlums from the next block over, trying to steal his hubcaps? Whatever it was, it was too damned late to be getting him out of bed.

The old man grunted as he got to his feet and shuffled to the door, pulling on his coat and grabbing his keys to shut the alarm off. He was cussing the entire way.

"Damn kids," he muttered as he moseyed out into the hallway and down to the door. "Always at the latest damn hour of the damn night... Can't go one damn week without those damn kids setting off my damn alar-... oh my God."

He'd reached the front door of the building, expecting to see a bunch of kids crowded around his car, as usual. There was a crowd, but they weren't the average teenage ragamuffins. Dozens of people were standing out in the street, pointing towards Roy's car, and the body lying on top of it.

-

(Written in Kenny's point of view. From here on, all things in brackets will be Kenny's thoughts.)

-

_So loud.. What's that noise? Oh... oh yeah... Mr. A's car alarm... Wonder why that's going off... Probably some kids again... Hope they don't go after my car... not much worth stealing anyway..._

_Oh, hey. I'm awake. I'm not in bed. Where's my cat?_

_Light... I can see... What's going on? Who are these people? They're all staring at me. Did I do something wrong?_

_That young woman looks like she's seen a ghost. She's crying. What is this?_

_Wait... wait... Why can't I move my arms? My legs? My neck...?_

_I can't feel anything... Isn't it supposed to be cold outside...? But I was inside..._

_I was on the balcony..._

_And the railing... oh my God... I'm dead... I fell off the balcony and died... _

_I fell off the balcony and landed on Mr. A's car..._

_But if I were dead, I'd be getting judged... I wouldn't be lying here... _

_Maybe this is hell?_

-

(Back to narrative.)

-

Not long after Roy finally shut the car alarm off, the ambulance arrived, blaring its siren and flashing its lights.

"Boy's gone and killed himself!" Roy declared, crossing his arms over his chest. "Gone and thrown himself onto my Cutlass! Could've at least had the decency to aim for the damn pavement!"

_I'm sorry, Mr. Alpine..._

Medics jumped out of the back of the ambulance, hurrying over to Kenny and checking him over.

"I've got a pulse, but he's not breathing," one of them said. "Get me an ET and an ambu bag."

_I'm not breathing? Of course I'm not breathing, I'm dead. Hold on.. I've got a pulse?_

Kenny was lifted, very carefully, off of the top of Mr. Alpine's car and onto a stretcher. Someone tilted his head back, and he could see the young face of a female medic. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her skin was dark. She looked Arabic.

"Sir, can you hear me?" she asked.

_I can hear you. Can you hear me? Hellooo? I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service..._

Another medic, a young man, pulled Kenny's mouth open and eased a tube down his throat. The end of it stuck out of his mouth, and the Arabic-looking woman attached what looked like a blue balloon to it. He watched her lips as she silently counted to five and pumped it. One, two, three, four, five, pump. One, two, three, four, five, pump.

_She's breathing for me. She's keeping me here. Maybe I'm not dead after all._

The young man who had given Kenny his ET started talking to him as they pulled the stretcher into the ambulance. "Mr. Wallace, you've just fallen three stories out of your apartment building and landed on a Cutlass."

_I could've told you that._

"My name is Derrick, and the woman breathing for you right now is Acacia. Can you hear us? Can you move at all?" Derrick asked, as he knelt beside Kenny in the ambulance.

_Sorry, nope. Can't move a bit. Otherwise I'd be glad to shake your hand and ask where my cat is._

"Is he concious?" asked Acacia between pumps.

"His eyes are open. He's looking at me." Derrick used a penlight to look in Kenny's eyes.

_Ow. Derrick, buddy, put that light out._

He set the light in his shirt pocket and said, "He's awake. He's paralyzed."

_Paralyzed...?_

-

(Some quick notes for you all.

ET: endotracheal tube, used to send air to the lungs

ambu-bag: a pump attached to an endotracheal tube to pump so that the patient can breathe)

-

"Patient can't move or feel any of his upper or lower extremeties."

"Mind telling me his name?"

"Kennard J. Wallace. Age twenty-four. Fell three stories from his apartment and landed on a car."

"Get Dr. Co-Dr. Cox!"

Dr. Cox came up to the stretcher that was being wheeled through the hallway. He froze at what he saw.

"K-Kenny!"

_Hi there, good doctor. How've you been these past two hours? I'm doing just fine. Nope, haven't found a job yet, but I'm sure something will come up._

Kenny looked right at the doctor from his place on the stretcher, which was being wheeled through the hallway at a fast pace. The only thing he seemed to have control of were his eyes, which he was using to their full potential right now.

The doctor pushed himself out of shock enough so that he could hurry after them. "G-get him on oxygen. We need to get an x-ray."

"Yes, sir."

The two people pushing the cart wheeled Kenny into a nearby room. His ambubag was removed, and replaced with an attachment that went to a little machine with wheels on it. Moving quickly, the people pushed Kenny back out of the room and through a series of hallways.

_One, Mississippi. Two, Mississippi. Oh, watch out, don't run me into that elevator door._

Before long, Kenny was taken into a dimly lit room and set on a long metal table that reminded him of the sorts of tables they used in morgues. If he could, he would've shuddered.

The people who had wheeled him in there appeared at his side. Acacia and Derrick were gone, and the folks in his current company had name tags that were covered by folded coat lapels. Both were females, though. One was kind of short, with dark red hair. She was a nurse with a girlish face, but looked to be in her mid-30's. (Cameo of my mother.)

The other was a tall woman with light brown hair and a doctor's white coat. Her eyes were shadowed slightly by her glasses as she used a small pair of scissors to cut Kenny's shirt open.

_No need for tha-Aww, man, I liked that shirt..._

She narrowed her eyes as she spotted the silver cross on his chest; a necklace he'd worn since he got it five years ago from his mother. The woman reached down and undid the clasp, pulling it away.

_Take care of that, please._

The woman smiled at seeing that he was watching her. "Don't worry. I just have to take it off so it doesn't interfere with the machine," she said. "I won't lose it." He watched her drop it into her coat pocket. She and the nurse both turned and walked back into a small area in the back of the room. Kenny couldn't see them from there.

_Wait! Please don't leave me here alone..._

"Mr. Wallace, we're going to be taking x-rays to see what the problem is. Please try not to move," came a voice from a small speaker nearby.

_I'll try, but I'm not making any promises._

He watched as the large mechanical paw of a machine settled down over him and slowly scanned over his entire body. He felt like a mouse that was being examined by a ravenous cat; as if the machine were judging whether he was worth x-raying or not.

Finally, the beast gave a series of clicking noises and settled back into its original position near the cieling. Kenny stared up at it, hoping it was through. He was frightened, and wanted to know what was going on.

_Paralyzed... I've seen people on TV that were paralyzed... isn't paralysis permanent...?_

The nurse and doctor both came out of the back area and carefully placed Kenny back onto the stretcher he'd come in on. He watched them both, wishing they'd talk to him more. He was starting to feel like a piece of furniture they were moving around.

_Talk to me. Please. I'm still here. One of you, please, talk to me about something. Anything._

As if she'd heard him, the nurse with the red hair said, "Mr. Wallace, we're going to place you in a room in ICU while we wait for your x-rays. They should be back very soo-oh, thank you!" She grinned brightly as someone ran up to her and handed her an orange envelope. "They're in now, as a matter of fact."

-

End Ch. 2

(A/N: An abrupt ending, I know, but it was getting too long and I need to go to sleep. oO;;)


	3. An Angel Forgotten

A/N: New chapter. Yep yep.)

Kenny was placed in a room in the ICU, just as promised. In the room were three people now; the nurse from before, Dr. Cox, and Kenny. Dr. Cox and the nurse had their backs to Kenny as they examined his x-ray. He was alone on his side of the room, listening to his heart moniter as it beeped, and watching the machine that was breathing for him as the pump inside went up and down with soft "pshhhiiick" noises.

_Please talk to me._

The longer they took examining the x-ray, the more excruciating the wait was becoming for Kenny. He hated not being spoken to, not being able to speak, not being able to ask whether or not he'd be paralyzed forever. He hated having to lie there and wait, mentally pleading with them to come talk to him.

He'd begun to cry, although he didn't realize it. The whites of his eyes were pinkened slightly as saline drops streaked from his eyes and down into his hair, some sliding down to his jawline, to his neck, and getting soaked into the pillow he was lying on.

_I'm going to be paralyzed forever. My mama will take care of me until she dies and then I'll be put in a nursing home to rot. I'll never get to have my own restaurant. I'll never have a wife and kids and Chocolate's probably going to be kicked out onto the streets and die._

Kenny looked away from the quietly whirring machines and stared up at the cieling.

Dr. Cox sighed in a state of semi-relief and pulled Kenny's x-rays down from the light he and the nurse were using to examine them. He turned and approached the bed to tell Kenny his current status.

As he opened his mouth to speak, he stopped.

The flourescent lights of the cold hospital room gave Kenny the pale glow of an angel forgotten. The young man was staring at the cieling as if he were looking right through the cement and plaster of the building, straight up through the clouds to God himself, pleading with those tear-filled green eyes.

_Why, God? What did I ever do to deserve this?_

After a moment, Dr. Cox snapped out of the slight daze he'd fallen into. He kicked his legs into gear and slowly walked up to the bed. He paused, and then sat down in the leathery chair beside Kenny's bed to talk to him.

"Kenny," said Dr. Cox.

Kenny's eyes moved to look at him, blank and stoic, but still pinkened from tears.

Again, the doctor paused. 'Compose yourself, man,' he thought.

Finally, he said, "Kenny, you've broken your back. That's pretty... obvious, I guess. But, you're lucky. Witnesses say you landed on your side."

_And...? How is that lucky?_

"There's been no permanent damage. You've got three bruises on your spine. Here, see..." The doctor turned in his chair and held up the x-ray for Kenny to see. As if he knew what any of the black and white film meant. "Here, you've bruised your L3 and L4, that's lumbar, vertebrae. And right here, your C3 vertebrae." He put the x-ray down and gave Kenny the friendliest smile he could muster. It was quite a stretch.

"You see, your spinal cord wasn't severed. There's just swelling in these three areas, but they can be repaired with steroid injections. I'd say it'd take about... three to five days. We'll have to put you in a body frame..."

Dr. Cox's voice faded out of Kenny's world. His mentality was on spring break in Cancun.

_Yes! Yes, thank you, Lord, they can fix me! I'm not a lost cause! Where is my cat? Ah, nevermind, she'll be fine for now. They can FIX me! Yes! YES!_

"...up to eighteen months of physical therapy." The doctor's voice found its way back to Kenny.

Kenny looked back at Dr. Cox.

_Physical therapy? For what? I thought you said you could fix me._

Dr. Cox paused and realized that Kenny probably wouldn't know about the physical therapy. He looked down in thought for a moment or so. Then, he spoke.

"Kenny, I don't know if you know anything about computers... but when you get a computer, it doesn't know anything. You know how to use it, but it doesn't have all the software and applications it needs. Over the course of a few years or so, you get all the things you need for that computer and it's just fine the way it is. It gets a virus every once and a while, maybe a little spam, but it's pretty much alright. Think of the computer like your body.

Well, when your computer crashes, like your body crashed, all the information is lost. Luckily for you, Kenny, we can repair your computer, and the, er, main hard drive wasn't damaged. However, all the applications you downloaded for your computer were lost."

_...Uhm... insert cricket noise here..._

Again, Dr. Cox paused. "I guess... well... In general, your body is going to feel different now. Your nerve endings got all screwed up and had to fix themselves back, so now they've changed. You won't be able to control things like you usually do. It's like learning to ride a bike for the first time, or controlling a giant robot..."

_Somebody watches Japanese animation._

The nurse looked up from arranging charts to laugh at Dr. Cox's example. "Or maybe," she added, "It's like getting a new body and learning to control it."

"Yeah, or something like that..." Dr. Cox looked down and bit his lip in thought.

_What's up, doc?_

"Kenny," Dr. Cox looked up and sighed, locking eyes with his patient. "Why... did... Kenny, were you trying to kill yourself?"

_What!_

"I mean, I know losing your job is a bad thing, but suicide..."

_I would never! I'd never try to kill myself._

"...didn't have any choice but to fire you..."

_You've got it all wrong, doctor. The balcony broke and--augh, you can't hear me..._

The nurse walked over and inserted a needle into Kenny's side. Kenny looked at her.

_Pardon me, miss, what is that giant needle you've stuck in me?_

When she was done, the nurse looked up and smiled warmly. "That was your first dose of steroids, Mr. Wallace," she said.


End file.
